


Red Rain

by AndyAO3



Series: somewhere (there's a place for us) [9]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Banter, Blind Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison, Dreams and Nightmares, Established Relationship, Feels, Fluff, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, M/M, Vaguely Described Injury and Past Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 08:41:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9483269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndyAO3/pseuds/AndyAO3
Summary: Even after so much of what happened between them has been mended, Jack's still haunted by the past.At least he doesn't have to face his nightmares by himself anymore.





	

**Author's Note:**

> hey look i wrote non-explicit R76 again whup whup. title's a Peter Gabriel reference, not a White Stripes reference. link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yq7lfJMagY have some tunes
> 
> might upload some explicit stuff too here in a bit. JSYK jack's blindness is categorized as "profound impairment" and is only barely able to be corrected with things like glasses. honestly he should probably get surgery or cybernetics but he's an antisocial whiny baby who doesn't like or trust doctors much anymore. gabriel has an equal or greater mistrust of doctors so he's not about to encourage him to go get fixed either. 
> 
> writing from jack's point of view is weird y'all. the working title of this was "jack is a potato 2" because even though it's the first I've posted, it's the second thing I've written from jack's POV and whenever I do that I label it as "jack is a potato". yeah i got nothin'

Ever since Zurich, Jack had come to hate dreaming.

Too often, he dreamed of fire. Of pain, of blood, of smoke and heat and the dust from the wreckage. His hands seared and scarred from digging his way out, from trying to dig Gabriel out. Sometimes the Gabriel of his dreams would grab him in those last moments, snarling every last insult and accusation Jack had heard from him both before and after things had fallen apart. Sometimes, even as Jack came away from the smouldering remains, Gabriel's voice would follow him. Slightly better were the dreams where he remembered being happy and content and loved only to have it turn to ash before he woke, but only slightly.

He'd thought that patching things up with Gabriel might improve things. But as he woke to the feeling of strong hands on his shoulders, gasping for breath and damp with sweat, he knew that this wasn't the case.

"Jack, hey." Gabriel's voice sounded far away even though it was only a few inches away; in the moments between sleep and wakefulness, Jack must have looked bewildered as he tried and failed to blink away the cloudiness in his vision. "Shhh, it's okay. It's just me, sunshine."

"Gabe?" Jack brought his hands up, fumbling to try and feel what he couldn't see as he fought to breathe. Gabriel's skin flaked and crumbled under his fingers, and even if it reformed just as quickly, it didn't help with his lingering panic.

But the big, broad hands that came up to cup his jaw-- those were real. Real, and warm. Jack shuddered as he shifted into the touch, closing his eyes. Everything was too much of a blur to see Gabriel's expression anyway. "Come back to me, Jackie," the wraith said in a low, soothing murmur. He felt calloused thumbs stroke his cheeks. "That's it. I'm right here."

Jack slid his own hands up Gabriel's front, feeling him breathe. Feeling his heart beat. Lingering on his neck to feel for a pulse, making sure it was there; sighing with relief when it was. "Thought I was done with this," Jack mumbled.

That earned a laugh and a peck on the nose. "Happens to the best of us."

"Still feel stupid for letting it get t'me." Jack opened his eyes, squinting to try and study Gabriel's features. "Didn't wake you, did I?"

Gabriel huffed. "You know I don't sleep much these days."

"That's not an answer."

"You're right. It's not." Jack let his eyes fall closed again as Gabriel sighed and let his forehead rest against the old soldier's own. "Guess this is where I ask if you wanna talk about it, huh?"

"And this is where I dodge by mentioning that I need to take a piss," Jack replied blandly. This was their moment to relax in between being enemies and being called on to actually do things by their respective organisations - Talon and Sombra left by the wayside for a few days, Overwatch and Ana having been informed that Jack would be pointedly ignoring them - and he wasn't going to ruin it with his negativity if he could help it.

The wraith snorted. "Yeah, well, your breath smells like roadkill." Still, he let go and rolled off anyway, freeing Jack from his weight. Probably for the best, even as Jack mourned the loss of all that comfortable warmth; it wasn't like Jack had been lying, after all.

Having to get up didn't stop Jack from continuing with the teasing. "You _taste_ like roadkill," he shot back as he heaved himself up and stretched, heading for the en suite bathroom of their dingy, cheap hotel room by feeling his way around and squinting a lot. It was still dark outside the window save for a few streetlamps, so it must've been a weird-ass hour. "Someone should tell Cosmo what a diet of human souls does to the taste of a person's dick."

Gabriel's voice followed after him. "Like you're much better?" the wraith called out from the other room. "You have all the good dietary habits of a dumpster-diving raccoon."

"Yet I still manage to have more stamina than you. I don't think the souls are doing you any favors, Gabe."

"Right, because old age and antidepressants making it hard for you to get it up don't have anything to do with how long you 'last'."

"You're older than me."

"And dead. Really, Jack, you have no excuse for being in worse shape than I am."

"Dunno what you're talking about. I'm in great shape. Even Ana thinks so."

"Compared to most men your age, sure, but for a super soldier your age?"

Jack rolled his eyes as he washed his hands; he'd had to pick up the various bottles on the counter and hold them in front of his nose to be able to squint at them and tell which one was the soap, but that was a non-issue for him by that point. "You're just jealous of how good I still look."

Gabriel's laugh was audible even from the other room. "Your ass is literally flat, Jack."

Coming out of the bathroom, Jack leaned against the doorframe to stare at the vaguely person-shaped blob still lounging on the bed. There was more dark, warm skin than inky-black smoke indicated by the colors of said blob, which meant Gabriel was in decent enough shape to hold himself together. He couldn't be certain, but it seemed like Gabriel was looking at him; he fought the urge to strike a stupid pose just to get the other man to laugh.

Thirty years ago, just the sight of Gabriel laying all draped over the bed and relaxed and naked with the sheets tossed aside like that would have had him at half-mast already, bad dreams or not. And in spite of the age and antidepressants doing a number on his libido, the part of him that had survived those thirty years longed to be able to really see what Gabriel looked like now, the bedside lamp casting a warm glow over his skin. Highlighting his scars, accenting his strong profile.

He was probably beautiful. "You like my ass," Jack replied after a while, smiling.

"Could still be better," Gabriel said, lifting an arm to make a beckoning motion. "Come on, get your flat ass back over here."

It said something about Jack that he didn't hesitate to comply, flopping back into bed on the other side and allowing Gabriel to pull him back into a warm embrace with an arm looped around his shoulders. Jack was the one to yank the covers back up and over the both of them, letting his head rest on Gabriel's shoulder once he was settled back in. That way, he could be sure Gabriel wasn't going to disappear. Could hear his heartbeat, listen to him breathe.

"You sure you're okay?" the wraith asked, just as Jack was beginning to lose track of time and drift off again. He supposed that probably deserved an answer.

"I'm fine," he said. Then, out of habit as he snuggled closer, "I love you."

He felt Gabriel's chuckle as much as he heard it, along with a hand petting his hair fondly. "Get some sleep, Jackie."

 


End file.
